Expanding Renewables in New York State

BACKGROUND AND CHALLENGES

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) is a comprehensive strategy to transition the state to a more resilient, affordable, and lower-carbon energy future. New York also adopted the Renewable Energy Standard (RES), requiring that utilities and other electricity providers deliver customers more renewable energy. By 2030, New York’s electricity consumers are expected to get 50 percent of their power from renewable sources, doubling the amount of renewable generation over 13 years. Most of the increase is expected to come from large-scale wind and solar projects. To identify potential barriers and offer solutions to help the state meet its “50 by 30” goal, The Nature Conservancy and the Alliance for Clean Energy New York convened the Renewables on the Ground Roundtable. This group consisted of 23 individuals representing the wind and solar industries, conservation organizations, land use, agriculture, regional planning, transmission, and municipal government experts.

THE CBI APPROACH

CBI designed and facilitated the 12-month dialogue among the Roundtable members and 14 other observers and experts, including state agencies. The Roundtable participants worked together to develop 10 core principles and specific actions designed to:

• Improve the state permitting and siting process for both large-scale renewable projects and the transmission to deliver clean power to consumers
• Address shortcomings in how stakeholders—particularly the affected communities—are engaged in decision-making processes
• Rationalize a system for negotiating property taxes that is acceptable to both developers and local authorities
• Provide the resources to help local government be informed and effective partners in renewable energy development
• Preserve productive agricultural land as it comes under increasing pressure with the expansion of large-scale projects
• Identify opportunities to advance environmental justice and equity principles

RESULTS

The final report, released in October 2017, can serve as a work plan for state agencies, local government officials, land use and economic development planners, solar and wind developers, transmission planners and developers, and agriculture and land conservationists to support the transition to New York’s bold vision for a clean energy future.